The trio of reports, published by the Assets and Education Initiative at the university's School of Social Welfare, found that kids and teenagers who take part in maintaining their own savings accounts may be more likely to save and invest money "with mainstream banks" as young adults.

One of the studies' author, Terri Friedline, said that young adults are twice as likely to have savings accounts and four times as likely to have invested in stocks if they had savings accounts as children. She also said that young adults who had savings accounts as kids accumulated an average of about $2,000--a total of about $1,900 more than their counterparts who didn't have savings accounts as kids.

The reports concluded that removing policy barriers that limit account ownership could benefit children and financial institutions.

In addition to offering accounts tailored to children, credit unions and credit union organizations have a variety of programs designed to get kids to start saving money at a young age. The Pennsylvania Credit Union Association (PCUA) recently reported the opening of the 52nd student-run in-school credit union in the state (Life Is a Highway Oct. 3), and the National Credit Union Foundation (NCUF) holds Reality Fairs, which are interactive financial literacy education gatherings.